Recommended by Franky D. Gonzalez

There are plays which go beyond intended audiences and speak to the global community. The setting may be Melbourne but this play could be done in Moscow, Tokyo, Johannesburg, London, or Los Angeles and the audience would understand. The world Christopher Bryant presents us in DISINHIBITION is frightening in its familiarty and disquieting in its message. I am not sure if Bryant is chronicler or prophet, but this work cannot become a Cassandra prophesying the rapid decay of our global community trapped in falsehoods while our most impressionable go the way of Tay into radicalization. Read this play. Don't wait.

It's easy to fall into the traps of being preachy or giving cookie cutter answers to complex questions that mark the human condition. The decision to end your life is a topic that is often romanticized to a point of fetishization or altogether silenced and never spoken about in polite company. Emily Hageman falls into neither of the traps that plague this subject matter in this moving play exploring masculinity, friendship, and all the doubts and hopes we have when confronted with a confusing and chaotic existence. Read and witness the story blossom like an orchid. It's well worth it.

Matthew Weaver has captured the "awakening" of a young man interested in building toy models in a unique and interesting way by providing the memory from the perspective of that memory's personification. I promise, the monologue is not as confusing as I just made it. A fun slice-of-life moment capturing the moment adulthood begins to develop for a boy. It's a breeze of a monologue and keeps you engaged throughout. Really cool experimental monologue by Matthew Weaver!

There are experiences that you have as a reader that leave you humbled by the talent, humanity and obvious love given to text by the author. Majok has done that and so much more with COST OF LIVING. The play captures you from the very first monologue. The conversation flows so beautifully and the silence speak so much more than any measure of dialogue. To read the script is to read a virtuoso creating endlessly accessible dialogue and story. It's stunning and absolutely heartrending. Read this play and let it wash over you like a Satie miniature. What gorgeous writing.

Jessica Huang comes right to the heart of where fairy tales and dreams come from in MERMAIDS. She creates two vivid characters coping with something implied to be serious for Cecilia. Huang weaves an emotional tapestry that is so beautifully understated that you feel as if you've gotten the whole story from the setting's description after reading this play. It's a wonderful portrait and wonderful moment shared between a couple on one of life's many downs. You're not left without hope though, you're left with a melancholic smile and a longing for things to work out. A quiet, beautiful work.

A slice of life moment in time that leaves you thinking about your place in the world. Krause has a style with her dialogue and soliloquy that leaves you feeling that each of her characters is uniquely human. Each character is distinct and each one in a different place in their life. So much is told in so few lines, from the hectic, high pressure life and situation of Girl, to the universal concerns of Beck, to the bewildered caring of T. Each leave you wondering and wanting a little more. A wonderful slice of life play from Emily Krause!

A play that explores the unlikely relationship between two massive talents in their respective fields. Endlessly readable and charming through and through, SAM AND DEDE is a play that will draw you right in and transport you into the world of high literature and world wrestling and everything in between. Between two men finding humor in their abilities and inabilities, finding discussions on personal worldviews and seeing, but most of all finding friendship in an often lonely world that view the different under a lens that breeds misunderstanding. DiIorio treats these characters with heart and humor. Read it and smile.

What more can be said about this haunting and absolutely stunning work by playwright extraordinaire Caridad Svich? Poetic beauty? Check. Hypnotic storyline? Double check. Effective and sobering commentary on our western culture at multiple classes? Checkaroo. A moving story from the perspective and wild imaginations of children in danger? Oh my gosh, yes. Why are you reading this recommendation when you can be reading RED BIKE??? Enjoy it. Relish it. See yourself in it. See your family in it. Let yourself wonder what you are doing and what can be done as we watch our culture decaying. Read it now!

The language is both economical and effectively lyrical in this commentary of modern America's moral compass and depressing hypocrisies. Svich exposes the rot underneath the veneer of small town America and explores the hollow arguments of economic hardship and historical interaction as justification for immoral acts. It's laid out bare here. Religious disillusion, resentment, the struggle to be better, and yes, even love. Svich is creating something special in her AMERICAN PSALM cycle. Taken together with RED Bike you feel the rumblings of something awe-inspiring just over the horizon. I am anxious to read more. I highly recommend this play!

There are playwrights with a talent to make the quirky into the devastating. Burbano is one such playwright. Combining at once the nature of joy and sadness, Burbano captures the concept of memory and loss in such a compact monologue. You go through the 80s and reach today like a bike ride down a hill going faster and faster until you're here at this moment breathing deeply and reminiscing on the triumphs and tragedies of life. A wonderful monologue for an actress with experience and courage. Take a moment and read it. It's like life, passing by too quickly.